Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Remember the movie Galaxy Quest? A wonderful parody of Star Trek starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Justin Long ... to name a few.

I often use this motto when I'm in the throes of something worthwhile and fighting to see it through to the end.

It has been my experience that Anything I've done that I felt was God's will in my life has always faced tremendous adversity and giving up is one thing I used to do.

However, one year, Scott and I vacationed in Grand Lake, Colorado. It was June ... Early June. There was a constant chill in the air and we wanted to do a lot of hiking.

Well, hiking at 60 or 70 pounds overweight is tough. Add the altitude and perseverance is critical. But on this particular trip God gave me a lesson in perseverance that I will always remember.

We decided to climb a mountain the first day there. We must have hiked for a solid two hours and then decided to turn around. We got tired. It was so pretty all along the way. So much to see but we decided to not complete that path and came on back.

Next day, we rested.

But then came Shadow Mountain.

It was a very long hike. We figured it would take about 4 to 6 hours.

At least this is how I remember. The details may be slightly off because this was one of the toughest physical experiences I've ever had. This and the tea house by Lake Louise.

So we walked along this beautiful lake and then came to the deciding point: up or around?

We were quite hopeful about making it to the top.

It was early. We were fresh. We decided to go for the lookout.

We're on vacation!

Looking back, if we had thought about all the facts, we wouldn't have ever started.

This hike took us up about 5,000 feet. I believe we were at about 8,500 above sea level and we'd finish somewhere around 12,000 (or was that 14,000? I'd have to look that up!)

Either way, that was quite a difference.

Scott climbed up among some of the amazing boulders just for fun.

In order to make it there were lots and lots of switch backs. This is where the trail will zig zag to get you up a steep incline.

Now we had snacks and water. We were prepared. But I didn't have a walking stick. I got that further down the path. This was exhausting,

The terrain was rough and our legs were really beginning to protest about this decision.

We were so delighted to make it to the lookout.

When we reached the lookout the view was breathtaking. It felt like we were on top of the world. It wasn't a good day for photos but we took them any way.

It was overcast but you still felt like you on top of the world.

As we looked to where we had hiked the day before we saw we missed out on some beautiful upper lakes. That's when it hit me that I never want to stop short again. I never want to not reach that goal. There is just too much I'll miss if I do.

If you look very close just about 3/4 up in the center, you can see the lookout.
We noticed this on the way back. Had we seen it while going up,
I'm not sure we would have completed the trek.

Had we known the distance we would have failed. We would have stopped. You can see, as we returned down the trail we captured two pictures of where we had been. We were able to see the outlook many times along the trail. It didn't take long for it to look very, very, very far away. I'm so grateful God kept our eyes on the trail and shielded us from how huge our commitment had been that day,

Yes, my finger (the next day) is pointing to exactly where we were the day before.
It was wonderful. I'd do it again!

Under my finger here is where we had been that day. This picture was taken the next day. Soar and fulfilled I am proudly indicating the trip we'd made the day before.

There are many mountain tops in our lives. They are hard, rocky and full of many twists and turns. However, they are so worth the climb,

I heard a paraphrase of Philippians 4:13 that inspired this post today: